Area High School Students Gathering Feb. 26 for Junior Achievement Titan Business Challenge
Contact: Jesse Moriarity, (207) 581-1427; George Manlove, 581-3756
ORONO — High school students from three regions — Bangor, Portland and Castine — will assemble Thursday, Feb. 26, for the 2009 Junior Achievement Titan Challenge, a state competition in which students, with adult advisers from the business community, team up to create virtual businesses to see which is most likely to succeed.
Ten student teams will gather at 8:30 a.m. at UMaine’s Foster Student Innovation Center in Orono, at Glickman Library on the University of Southern Maine campus in Portland and at Maine Maritime Academy in Castine. At UMaine, a series of workshops will be led by Maine Business School graduate students, to be followed by a live, Internet conference broadcast in which the student teams present business plans for hypothetical companies.
The challenge coincides with Maine’s observance of National Entrepreneurship Week.
At UMaine, high school juniors and seniors will be coming from Bangor, John Bapst, Orono, Corinth, Hermon and Bangor Christian Academy.
Based on Junior Achievement’s high school simulation program, the Titan Challenge places high school students in the CEO’s seat and increases their understanding of the real world of business. Young entrepreneurs will be taught about the nuances of running a global business in a competitive, high-tech marketplace.
Students will have complete authority to manage and operate their own virtual business. Success depends on how well they manage key decisions, including: how much money to spend on research and development; what new innovations to add to their product; how to price their product; what to spend on marketing and how it affects sales; making recommendations for capital investment based on set parameters; and how much to produce and how it affects price, sales and profit.
Using video-conferencing software, winning teams in each area will compete for the state title. The winning Maine team will compete in a national competition.
This is the third year the Junior Achievement Titan Challenge has been held in Maine. At UMaine in Orono, organizers are pleased to introduce participating high school students and members of the business community to the university in a fun and memorable way, says Jesse Moriarity, coordinator of the Foster Student Innovation Center and co-organizer of this year’s Titan Challenge.
“It’s a great way for them to come and see what the university has to offer,” she says.
The day-long event ends at 3:30 p.m. at all three locations.
This year’s Titan Challenge sponsors include Diversified Business Communications, L.L. Bean, AAA Northern New England, Bangor Sam’s Club, Bangor Savings Bank, Modern Woodmen of America, Camden National Bank, Maine Savings Federal Credit Union, Sprague Energy Corporation, Synernet, Inc. and the Galen Cole Family Foundation.
General sponsors and competing partners include: KeyBank, WABI TV 5, University of Southern Maine, University of Maine – Lewiston-Auburn Campus, University of Maine Foster Student Innovation Center, Maine Maritime Academy and its student entrepreneurs club, Students in Free Enterprise. Lenovo is providing the computers for the event in Orono.
For further details, Moriarity can be reached at (207) 581-1427.
Junior Achievement of Maine is a nonprofit organization dedicated to teaching children about business and economics. During the 2006-2007 school year, JA of Maine served more than 9,600 students in grades K-12 across the state with the support of more than 350 classroom volunteers.